By Kirsten Grind

Janus Capital Group Inc. Chief Executive Dick Weil said famed bond investor Bill Gross wasn't "the story" during the first quarter as profits rose 46%.

The day Mr. Gross left giant money manager Pacific Investment Management Co. for Janus six months ago, shares in the smaller Denver-based firm had their biggest one-day gain in company history as analysts, investors and industry observers speculated about how much he would help turn around the struggling firm's fortunes.

But on an analyst call following Janus' first quarter earnings report Thursday, Mr. Gross warranted just one mention by Mr. Weil, and only to direct attention elsewhere. Analysts also didn't ask about Mr. Gross.

"The story of this quarter is not so much about the Bill Gross and Myron Scholes that we've talked about in prior quarters, although that remains valid and very important to our future," said Mr. Weil, referring also to a new chief investment strategist hired last July.

Mr. Weil focused instead on the firm's equity business, which saw its strongest quarter of investor inflows in seven years, with $2.2 billion in new money, according to the company.

Overall profits were $44.6 million, or 23 cents a share, compared with $30.5 million, or 16 cents a share, a year earlier, beating analyst expectations. The firm has $189.7 billion in assets under management.

Shares rose about 3.12% to $18.49 in early afternoon trading.

A Janus spokeswoman said Mr. Weil was unavailable for comment Thursday and Mr. Gross declined to comment. Mr. Gross manages the Janus Global Unconstrained Bond fund at Janus, with about $1.5 billion in assets under management.

During the quarter, Mr. Gross took in a net $100 million in assets in his fund, all from outside investors, according to a spokeswoman.

The fund has returned 1.78% since he began trading on Oct. 6 through Wednesday, compared with .13% for its benchmark, the ICI Libor 3-month index, according to fund research firm Morningstar Inc. Mr. Gross is beating 76% of other similar funds.

"Bill Gross' Global Unconstrained Bond Fund has made a mighty comeback over the last five weeks," wrote Ken Worthington, an analyst at J.P. Morgan & Co. in a research note this month.

But analysts say the amount of money Mr. Gross has been able to capture since his move is small compared with the investor outflows at Pimco following his departure. Pimco's flagship Total Return fund, long managed by Mr. Gross, has seen its assets under management sink from a peak of $293 billion in April 2013 to $117.4 billion at the end of March, according to Morningstar.

Mr. Worthington of J.P. Morgan noted that there would have to be a market event that Mr. Gross would need to be "on the right side" of for him to see a big influx of investor money.

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this year that Mr. Gross, a billionaire, had invested more than $700 million into his Janus fund, a move later confirmed by the company.

Lisa Beilfuss contributed to this article.

Write to Kirsten Grind at kirsten.grind@wsj.com

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